Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault joins Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins to discuss the party’s direction under new leadership, dealing with a trade war, and looking for support in Alberta.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Michael Higgins: There will be swearing-in ceremonies Friday for the new prime minister and his cabinet.
Where do you feel Mark Carney’s leadership leaves your government as it squares off against a tariff-hungry Trump administration?
Randy Boissonnault: I think the Liberal Party is the best party that we have in the country to defend against Donald Trump and his tariffs.
I was in Washington only two weeks ago, meeting with Republicans, meeting with Democrats. It is a country divided, and the president wants what the president wants so we have to be on guard, elbows up. The tariff response is serious because it has to be because the president responds to strength.
Mr. Carney brings global experience managing both the central Bank of Canada and England, and is also a very calm force. I think he positions our party for the best position in four years, but more importantly, he will position Canada to take on what is an existential threat.
I never thought I’d be on a newscast talking with you about annexation from our greatest trading partner and former ally. We are at a point now where we can’t trust the Americans. We have to negotiate with them.
They want transactional diplomacy, and that’s why we have ministers there today to bring the temperature down so that we can get these tariffs off and get back to trading in a way that makes sense to the president but also makes sense to Canadians.
MH: Mr. Carney needs a team behind him – that cabinet will be announced Friday.
What are your expectations for that and your response to reports today that Steven Guilbeault is out as environment minister?
RB: I’m seeing in the same thing you’re seeing in the press - smaller cabinet, focused cabinet on the fact that we are literally having to defend our sovereignty, and having to defend every inch of our economic sovereignty as well. So I’m anticipating a smaller cabinet.
Minister Guilbeault serves his constituents and Canadians well. He’s a very distinguished and talented MP. Whatever role Mr. Carney decides to give him, he will do that role well.
He and I worked on the Jasper file together. He wants to make sure that we save the planet and we have to do that because it’s a smart thing to do from a trading perspective.
If the prime minister-designate - prime minister tomorrow - asks Mr. Guilbeault to serve in a different capacity, he’ll do so ably.
MH: There’s lots of pressure now on Mr. Carney to trigger an election – rumblings of maybe April 28, May 5.
How do you weight the necessity to earn a mandate sooner rather than later in terms of dealing with Mr. Trump?
RB: I was knocking on doors last week before I went to Ottawa for the leadership vote, and what I heard from people is: call the election soon. We need a mandate. We want to support you. They said, “We need to know who our government is.”
It’s interesting. We elect parliaments, this time we’re electing a government. There’s really only two choices as to who can lead the government in the face of these Trump tariffs and it’s the Conservatives or the Liberals.
For my money, I’m on the liberal ticket, and we’ve faced off against Donald Trump before. We negotiated a successful trading trade deal. This Trump administration is different. It’s aggressive. There are expansionist imperialist tendencies, and so we need a strong government to be able to face off.
MH: As you do that door knocking, how do you answer your constituents anxieties over this accelerated talk of annexation, of making Canada the 51st state?
What do you say to calm people down?
RB: I look them right in the eye and say, “We will never become the 51st state of the United States, full stop.”
We have leverage. We have things the United States needs. We will play all of those cards in this high-stakes negotiation for the future of our country.
What I say to people is, I’ve been doing this now for 10 years. I understand how government works. The reason I went to Washington two weeks ago was to use my contacts, my knowledge of how Washington works, to make the case for Alberta and for Western Canada and for Canadians. That if you pick a fight with Canada, Canada is going to fight back.
I went there with Ben Carr who is the MP for Winnipeg South centre. We said, “I don’t know what the tolerance for pain in the United States is, Senator, but we guarantee that the tolerance for pain in Canada is higher.” So we’re squaring off against the Americans, and as Prime Minister Carney said: whether it’s in trade or in hockey, Canada wins.
MH: Where do you weigh in on oil and gas being used as a retaliation tool?
RB: What I really liked about this leadership race is it gave Canadians permission to be proud of the fact that we have natural resources.
Prime Minister Carney said we are going to be an energy superpower in both conventional and renewables. That brings everybody together. This is not a time to pick fights over jurisdiction and to pick fights over the fact that we have these resources. We’re going to need them. You know why?
Because we’re going to have to spend money on our own military. We’re going to have to join forces with countries around the world in a way that we’ve never done before, in the protection of Ukraine, in the protection of our own sovereignty. You get the sovereignty you pay for, and it’s going to come. We’re now at the point where Canadians are going to have to lean in. That means developing more of our resources, and we don’t have time to pick jurisdictional squabbles. It’s Team Canada.
MH: How do you feel about adopting conservative positioning on ditching the carbon tax?
RB: It’s already part of the plan. There won’t be a carbon tax on consumer price on pollution. Heading into this next campaign, you’ll see that Mr. Carney was very clear about that.
It’s really important that in a time of affordability, when we’re facing the greatest economic threat to our country in my lifetime, that we come together as Canadians - elbows up, Canada strong. That we’re buying Canadian, we’re traveling in our own country, because we need the Americans to see that we have resolve and that we’re serious.
That’s the hope that I have for this campaign - is that we’re going to come together as a country. We’re going to send a clear message to the world that we’re united, and then we can face these tariffs from the United States.
We have common cause with the European Union, with Australia, with other countries that the United States is picking on. So we’re going to take this fight to the Americans through and right after the election.
MH: What do you feel a Carney-led Liberal party has to offer Albertans that would draw support?
RB: Fiscal responsibility, social justice, international leadership, pride in our natural resources, and a leader who has Edmonton roots - Western roots. Who understands that we’re better when we’re all together, and that we can be Canada strong united.
In this next election, you don’t have to be liberal to vote Liberal, but it’s certainly going to help us defend our country.
